Serious Roland Sounds in a Portable, Gig-Worthy Digital Synth

Let's say you play keyboard in a band, and you're looking for a new "main axe" for live gigs. You've ruled out the heavy, expensive workstation boards, but you want more sonic flexibility than a simple digital piano. You want hundreds of playable onboard sounds, and you want to be able to grab knobs to shape your sound live without paging through menus. You want easy access to onboard multi-effects and a friendly, intuitive interface -- and you want it all in an uber-compact, portable, lightweight design. Built for the live keyboardist, the Roland JUNO-Di delivers all this and more in an inexpensive package.

Sounds for Live Performance

The JUNO-Di packs in more than 1,000 instruments with an emphasis on the piano, organ, strings, brass, and synth sounds that are crucial to live performance. It couldn't be easier to find the sounds you need fast, on the JUNO's adjustable-brightness large-character display. Press the button for Piano, Keyboard/Organ, Orchestra, World Music, Brass, Vocal/Pad, Synth, or Guitar/Bass, and use the jog wheel to scroll and select the perfect sound. You can create your own splits (for example, play organ with your right hand and bass with your left) or layer sounds such as piano and strings. Sixty-four useful splits and layers are preconfigured as Performance patches. Save your 10 favorite tones, splits, or layers, then hit the Favorite button to quickly access them through the 10 sound bank buttons. Plus, it's easy to tweak your tones live, with five analog-style dedicated knobs on the JUNO-Di's front panel.

USB Connectivity

Suppose your bandmate emails you a quick MP3 demo of a song they've written at home, or perhaps you're looking for a way to use WAV or AIFF files as backing tracks when you play shows. Either way, you can save the files on a USB memory stick and plug it into the USB port on the JUNO-Di's front panel. Your files will show up on the JUNO's text display. Use the Song Player's playback controls, adjust the volume independently, or even adjust tempo when you open a standard MIDI file. If you crave the ability to dig deep into detailed sound editing, or you want to build your own patches for the JUNO, run the included JUNO-Di Editor software on your Mac or PC. You can load your new sounds on the JUNO via USB, and even back up your JUNO's internal settings to your USB thumb drive. In addition to the USB port, you'll find all the standard connections on the back of the JUNO: MIDI I/O, dual 1/4-inch audio outs, 1/4-inch mic in, headphone out, and an 1/8-inch audio input.

Take It To The Streets

At under 12 pounds, the JUNO-Di is light enough to carry under your arm. And if you forget to bring the included power adapter, you can run this keyboard for three hours on eight AA batteries! There's a battery-life indicator on the front panel. All you need for a live street performance is a 1/4-inch instrument cable, a battery-powered amp, and your own musical ideas. When it comes to ultra-portable instruments, why should guitarists have all the fun? Throw your JUNO-Di in a backpack-style gig bag, and you're off to the races. Such a full-featured keyboard has never been so portable.

Layers of Live Effects

When it comes to live effects processing, the JUNO-Di is no lightweight. You can enhance any of the onboard sounds just by grabbing the dedicated Reverb knobs on the front panel. There's a dedicated channel for Chorus as well. When reverb and chorus just aren't enough, you can layer up to three more of the 79 built-in effects: delays, flangers, distortion, and much more, including a host of multi-effects options - even a rotary speaker simulator. Make the guitarist in your band jealous, with these BOSS-quality effects built right into your keyboard! There's even a vocoder for the JUNO-Di's microphone input, and the vocal mic has its own dedicated reverb and independent volume control, so you can get the exact sound you want. It's ideal for the keyboardist who also sings. There's even a Roland D-Beam controller, so you can control effects with the wave of your hand -- a showstopping performance feature. With all these onboard effects, the JUNO-Di may be the only live keyboard you'll ever need.

Product Description

Onstage or in the streets, the JUNO-Di is a traveling musician's dream. It's lightweight, it can run on batteries, and it's easy to use, yet it performs and sounds like a heavyweight synth. It's packed with a wide variety of top-quality sounds -- over 1,000 to choose from! It has a friendly "direct access" control panel for easy editing and a Song Player for larger-than-life performances. First-timers and pros alike will love this friendly, portable, great-sounding synth.

Over 1,000 Great Sounds

At the heart of this exciting synth is a top-of-the-line voice engine that delivers world-class sounds -- including grand and electric pianos, lush strings, beautiful guitars, powerful brass, percussion, plus banks of exotic instruments, modern synth sounds, and much more. The sound-bank is so diverse, it can compliment any style of music! And if you want to customize the sounds, the dedicated "Sound Modify" knobs on the front panel let you instantly cater each sound to your specifications, even while you're playing. A software editor is also provided if you prefer more advanced editing via PC.

Simple Navigation

With so many sounds onboard, it could be a daunting task to find what you need. But fear not -- the JUNO-Di simplifies the process of finding sounds with its dedicated category buttons. If you want a piano, for example, just press the Piano button. You can even assign your most-used sounds to the Favorite buttons for instant access. Editing is easy too. If you want to create layers or splits, dedicated buttons and the large LCD make the process fast and friendly. And don't forget the onboard rhythm patterns, which can be easily adjusted on the fly with a dedicated tempo control. It's a great tool for practice and performance.

Let's Go

The JUNO-Di was born to travel. It's strong yet amazingly lightweight (only 5.2kg) making it easy to lift and carry. The battery compatibility lets you play for up to five hours without plugging in (uses Ni-MH AA-size rechargeable batteries). When used in conjunction with a battery-powered amp such as Roland's famous Cube Street or Mobile Cube, the JUNO-Di can be played and heard anywhere. A battery-life indicator on the front panel ensures that you won't lose power unexpectedly.

Sing Along

More than meets the eye, the JUNO-Di lets you plug a microphone into its external input and process your voice through the built-in vocoder. A dedicated reverb is assigned to the input, so you can add lush ambience to your voice without taking away from the main onboard effects. Sing along with your performances and transform your voice in colorful and creative ways, from silky smooth to sci-fi robotic.

Built-In Song Player

With its USB memory port and Song Player function, the JUNO-Di enables direct playback and control of backing tracks from a USB key. You can play MP3, WAV, AIFF, and SMF files, and control them from the dedicated buttons on the front panel. Impress your audiences with full-band performances from a single keyboard! Additionally, the Center Cancel feature lets you sing along karaoke-style with audio files in the Song Player for a complete entertainment experience. You can also connect MP3 players directly to the JUNO-Di through its external input.

Power Supply: Can be powered either by 8 Ni-MH AA size rechargeable Batteries (Not Included) or PSB-1U AC Adapter (Included)

zZounds Expert Review

Roland doesn't just slap the word "Juno" on any old keyboard synth. With a legendary lineage including the Juno-6, Juno-60, and Juno-106, you can be sure the Juno-Di is ready to build that same kind of reputation among today's players.

Where the Action Is

The Juno-Di's 61-key playing surface is unweighted, but has enough bounce to feel convincing on electric piano, Hammond organ, and even acoustic piano patches. The keys are fully velocity-sensitive, offering ringing clarity when played with a feather touch, or a growly bark when you dig in deep. I was impressed that an instrument of this size (and price point) would be so expressive.

Beyond the keybed, the Juno-Di features Roland's standard combo-mod controller. Part joystick, part mod-wheel, you have good command over pitch bends and modulation for on-the-fly tweaking. Additional expression is well within reach in the form of Roland's D-Beam controller. You can assign a multitude of parameters to the D-Beam, and make changes by running your hand through the beam's path. It's a fun way to actively engage with your music.

For more in-depth patch tweaking without wading through a maze of menus, the Juno-Di's sound modification controls put the most common parameters right at your fingertips. When you load a patch, the five modification controls are auto-mapped to that patch's envelope attack and release, filter cutoff and resonance, and reverb mix. You can use these to customize existing patches into your own unique creations, or for real-time tweaking during performance.

If getting under the hood is what you live for, Roland includes a (Mac/Windows compatible) software editing program for full access to each parameter setting. You can build your patches from the ground up, or start with a preloaded sound and twist it into unrecognizability. The software also features a convenient patch librarian for organizing all your sounds.

Friends In High Places

The Juno-Di is very well-connected, with plenty of options for getting it into your existing rig. A pair of standard 1/4-inch unbalanced outs for analog interfacing, MIDI I/O for communicating with your outboard gear, and a USB port to get your computer into the mix. The 1/8-inch miniplug input passes audio from a CD or MP3 player to both the headphone jack and the main outs, so you can incorporate backing tracks into your live set or practice in a more musical context. If the CD/MP3 player is too much of a hassle, you can play files via USB thumb drive right from the front panel.

If you sing and play, the 1/4-inch microphone input has a dedicated gain control so you can dial in the right balance between vocals and keys. Reverb and vocoder effects can be applied to the mic signal, which is routed to the main outs automatically. If you sing and play outside, you're in luck, as the Juno-Di can be powered with eight AA batteries. Add a headset mic and one of Roland's battery-powered amplifiers, and you've got a completely portable setup.

All About The Sound

All of the above is nice, but doesn't mean a whole lot if the sound isn't on point. But, as I said, it's a Juno, and Roland takes that seriously. The Juno-Di is loaded with over 1,300 factory patches, all easily accessible via the category-based menu. Just choose one of the eight categories: Piano, Keyboard/Organ, Orchestra, World Music, Brass, Vocal/Pad, Synth, and Guitar/Bass, then scroll through to find the right sound. You also get 29 drum and percussion setups to add some rhythm to your sound. Many of the best patches come configured in the 64 Performance patches. Performances feature splits and layers, so if you're looking for more than one simultaneous sound, start here.

In my opinion, keyboards live and die by their sounds. I was definitely happy with the sounds in the Juno-Di, from the pianos, to the orchestra sounds, to the rock organs, some of which feature a rotary effect mapped to the mod-controller. I'm not suggesting these sounds are hyper-realistic clones that would be mistaken for the real deal, but they're definitely passable for gigging.

Analog Old-School-ness

The Juno-Di is a digital synth, but it's got enough analog character to feel like a throwback to the earliest Juno models. You get sparkly pads, searing saw waves, triple-fat filtery basses to go way back in the day.

Beyond the percussion patches mentioned earlier, the Juno-Di also comes loaded with 24 preset drum grooves. These patterns represent a number of different musical styles, and are great for providing inspiration when composing or for quickly adding a beat underneath your performance. A value control and a tap tempo button are available to set the speed.

Effects In Effect

The Juno-Di is outfitted with a full complement of effects patches on board. There are two dedicated effects channels for reverb and chorus, plus three more "multieffect" channels that can call up a variety of phasers, flangers, distortions, compression, delay, EQ, and much more. Some effects are application specific, with a vocoder for voice patches and a sympathetic resonance effect for added character on acoustic piano sounds. Other effects settings are truly multieffects, with layered combinations of flanger and distortion, for example.

Depending on the effect you load, the Juno-Di offers up to four tweakable parameters for additional sound sculpting. For example, you can choose the type of amp called up in the amp simulator effect, or the speed of the flanger. I appreciated the ability to adjust time-based effects such as flangers and delays by either milliseconds or note values relative to the tempo.

In Summary

The Juno-Di is a fantastic keyboard for the money. The sound and playability are well worth the price, but when you factor in the portability, sound shaping, connectivity, and performance-friendly controls, you're really getting a great value. A beginner will easily be able to navigate through the most useable functions, and more advanced players will find plenty of opportunities for creative inspiration....see more

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"The best Keyboard I have ever had"

Overall:
I purchased this keyboard for accessory purposes and it has more than enough sounds for the demand of gospel music. horn patches are great, synth patches are off the chain and the strings are so beautiful. Very easy to mix on projects. I might be a roland fanatic because this keyboard along with my other roland equipment is a must have.

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This review has been selected by our experts as particularly helpful.
"Roland Offers a Highly Professional Juno for a not so Professional Price"

Sound:
The absolutely best value in musical keyboards by far, far, far and away today. Its sounds are just as professional as any other professional board out there and all 1300 of its sounds are brought to you for an amazing price.
Feature:
The features on this board are amazing for the price. With 1300 sound patches, a midi controller, a menu option to edit and save 127 favorites, and options to record and save song data not only within the board but also on a backup usb card device, and 5 dials to immediately while in play the reverb, attack, cutoff, resonance, and release, and a laser beam light volume controller to use while in play or the "D" Beam controller, this board is absolutely amazing. It can make you a better player while playing it. I have never before owned a keyboard with over a thousand sound patches before and it is a momentous advantage to finally own a board that does, and for its price, with all that it is completely unmatched by any other board right now. It even has a cd that comes with it that allows you to edit the non rewritable sounds in the board in you computer and you can save them there like with the professional synths that cost thousands of dollars.
Ease of Use:
It is very very very easy to use indeed.
Quality:
I give the quality a 9 out of 10 because it is mad with remarkable resilient and tough and very light synthetic plastic. I think only keyboards made of real wood or metal that are much much heavier could be said to be a 10 in construction quality, but this one's not far behind those at all. And just a idea I just had here but I notice that all of the very old, aged, but still very highly damage free keyboards on all those old Hammond Organs many of which are nearing 45 years old and older have their keys manufactured in much lighter plastic than the keys and body of this board. Many a Hammond B3 Organ out there are still in use with very thin hollow keys after all these years and if they can last that long with proper care, so too this board should be able to do.
Value:
There just is no better valued keyboard out there at the moment that offers the stunningly impressive professional array of features and conveniences that this board has for the price. I know that if this board were made by any other manufacturer just a few short years ago it would have sold for thousands of dollars for sure and not just for $699.00. Best deal out there for the money.
Manufacturer Support:
I haven't owned it long enough to need customer support, but other roland keyboards that I have owned for 6 years now I have never needed to call customer support for what so ever.
The Wow Factor:
I think it is a very appealing product indeed. It is a pleasure to look at, I really like its colors that highlight the control panel, and being a primarily black colored instrument does make it very handsome; the LED screen is easy to read, it feel great while playing it as well.
Overall:
I expect that with what this keyboard has in its features package, 1300 sound patches and 127 favorites, with a midi controller, with the additional way to extensively edit any of the 1300 patches and save them into the 127 user favorite re writable patches; and the way it is built out of very heavy duty highly durable long lasting plastic,( which I know doesn't sound great but this keyboard if properly taken care of will take care of you for a very long time, easily many years ) I may well keep this keyboard for a very long time to come. I may own it for years or even decades. It has very a impressive array of many of the newest types of synth leads and the newest types of electronica or Rave or Trance sounds, but also offers many very hard to find old world instruments as well. This keyboard can replicate an amazing set of bagpipes, or penny flutes, a great banjo, fantastic fiddles and violins as well.

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